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Modify statistical education - Prof
Nsowah-Nuamah
Kumasi, July 25, GNA - Professor Nicholas Nsowah-Nuamah,
Acting government Statistician, has called for the
modification of statistical education in the country to
enable statisticians measure up to public expectation.
He said statistical training and research institutions
should produce a new breed of statisticians equipped not
only with a sound knowledge of sampling and basic theory,
but also with analytical skills to develop "data sense" and
recognize "patterns" in the data.
The statistician with such skills, he said, would be
well-equipped to get the most out of incomplete data through
the application of appropriate estimation and imputation
techniques that could be exploited to get the most out of a
mixture of administrative and survey data.
Professor Nsowah-Numah was speaking at the 10th biannual
delegates' conference of sub-saharan Africa Network (SUSAN)
of the International Biometric Society in Kumasi on
Wednesday.
The five-day conference was under the theme: "Achieving the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); The role of
biometrics".
It aimed at providing a forum for statisticians,
mathematicians and biometricians to brainstorm and come out
with the appropriate roles that will help them contribute to
the attainment of the MDGs.
Representatives from the USA, UK, Benin, South Africa,
Ethiopia, Rwanda, Nigeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Lesotho,
Cameroon, Botswana and Ghana are attending the conference.
Professor Nsowah-Nuamah said there was no point producing
stereotyped statisticians who could proof all the theorems
in statistics and mathematics but could scarcely
conceptualise problems and determine what appropriate
statistical method to be used to solve it.
He also stressed the need for statistical students to
develop a whole range of ICT-related skills that were not
restricted to computation skills or the simple "crunching"
of numbers. "Students need to appreciate the notions of a
database and develop the ability to manage and integrate
them," he added.
Professor Nsowah-Nuamah, suggested to the Ministry of
Education to introduce statistics as an elective subject at
the senior secondary school level to enable students to
differentiate statistics from mathematics.
He stated that the goals of the MDGs could not be achieved
without good official statistics to measure and monitor
progress towards them, adding that, accurate and timely
measurement and report of all economic and social activities
in a country were needed for effective management.
Professor Kwasi Kwarfo Adarkwa, Vice Chancellor of KNUST,
said the objectives of the MDGs, mainly to reduce poverty,
promote gender parity and reduce child and maternal deaths
in developing countries, had posed challenges for various
professionals including mathematicians and biometrics.
GNA
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